General Reference

In SAP, for any given class, multiple characteristics can be inherited from another class.

For example, consider the following SAP classes:

• EQ_CLASS_0001
• Fasteners
• Bolts
• Hexagonal Bolt

As shown in the following image, EQ_CLASS_0001 has four unique characteristics:

As shown in the following image, Fasteners also has four sets of unique characteristics:

Bolts, however, inherits all of the characteristics from EQ_CLASS_0001 and FASTENERS. In addition, Bolts has two unique characteristics of its own: HEAD_SHAPE and BOLT_TYPE:

Finally, Hexagonal Bolt also inherits all of the characteristics from EQ_CLASS_0001, FASTENERS, and BOLTS. It also has one unique characteristic of its own: TOLERANCE:

Using these SAP classes, in APM system, if you were to select the Extract From CMMS System check box for the HEXAGONALBOLT class, after selecting the Synchronize Characteristics link while viewing the HEXAGONALBOLT CMMS Classification record, the following CMMS Characteristic records would be created automatically:

As you can see from the Classification column, some of the characteristics are inherited from other classes:

Specifically, you can see that:

• The following characteristics are inherited from the class EQ_CLASS_0001:
  • COLOR
  • LOCAL_REG_NUM
  • OPH
  • SAP_EHS_1017_003_TEST_TYPE
• The following characteristics are inherited from the class FASTENERS:
  • FASTENER_DIAMETER
  • LENGTH
  • NUMBEROFTHREADS
  • THREAD_TYPE
• The following characteristics are inherited from the class BOLTS:
  • HEAD_SHAPE
  • BOLT_TYPE
• The characteristic TOLERANCE is assigned directly to the class HEXAGONALBOLT (no highlighting).

If you selected the Extract From CMMS System check boxes for all of these characteristics, if you were to run the Equipment Characteristics Extraction Interface without filters, all of these characteristics would be extracted.

If, however, you were to filter the report to extract only characteristics belonging to the HEXAGONALBOLT class, only characteristics that are assigned directly at the HEXAGONALBOLT level would be extracted. In other words, because only TOLERANCE is assigned directly to HEXAGONALBOLT, only the TOLERANCE characteristic would be extracted.

When you create CMMS Classification Type records using the CMMS System list, you must select the SAP system from which you want to extract characteristics belonging to that classification type.

The CMMS System list displays the values in the Name field in all existing EAM System records. When you save the CMMS Classification Type record, the APM system finds the EAM System record whose Name field contains the selected value, and the value in the System ID field in that EAM System record is copied to the CMMS System ID field in the CMMS Classification Type record.

Then, when you create CMMS Classification or CMMS Characteristic records that are associated with that CMMS Classification Type record, the value in the CMMS System ID field in the CMMS Classification Type record is copied automatically to the CMMS System ID field in those records.

CMMS Characteristic records are created automatically and linked to the CMMS Classification record. Each CMMS Characteristic record is created from a characteristic that currently exists in the specified SAP system (using the CMMS System field in the CMMS Classification record). The CMMS Characteristic records are displayed in a grid on the CMMS Classification datasheet.

When you run the Equipment Characteristic Extraction Interface or the Functional Location Characteristic Extraction Interface, APM needs to determine which specific characteristics to extract from that system. To do so, it evaluates the CMMS Characteristic records that exist in your APM database. If it finds any CMMS Characteristic records whose CMMS System ID field value identifies the SAP system from which you are running the interface, it will extract only those characteristics from that SAP system (assuming that the Extract from CMMS System check box is selected in the CMMS Characteristic record).

The EAM Adapters are used to populate the Site Reference on Equipment, Functional Location, and Work History records in APM.

The adapters populate the MI_SITE_KEY system field with the ENTY_KEY system field associated with the Site Reference value to be populated. On asset records, the Site Reference is stored in the MI_SITE_KEY field, a system field in APM. The EAM Adapters use the Site Name (MI_SITE_NAME) to translate the value to the corresponding Site Reference Key and populate the MI_SITE_KEY field; therefore, you do not need to know the key to be able to populate the site reference. This functionality is important because this value can change from one database to another.

When records are loaded using the Equipment, Function Location, and Work History Adapters, the system will assign the Site Reference Key (MI_SITE_KEY) to the assets using the value designated in the applicable context file (that is, the file for SAP or for Maximo ). The following parameters are used to designate the Site Reference Key value:

• SITE_REFERENCE_EQUIP: Used to populate the Site Reference Key on Equipment records being loaded into APM. The Site Reference Key determines the Site to which the Equipment record(s) will be assigned.
• SITE_REFERENCE_FLOC: Used to populate the Site Reference Key on Functional Location records loaded into APM. The Site Reference Key determines Site to which the Functional Location record(s) will be assigned.
  Note: The values entered into these parameters should match, because Equipment records are linked to Functional Location records. Therefore, they should have the same site.

These parameters accept two types of values to determine the site reference value.

1. Site Name: You can enter the site name directly as defined on the preexisting Site Reference record (i.e., Site 100).
2. Column Name: You can enter a column value between two pound symbols (#) to set the site reference. The following columns can be used:
   • SAP columns:
     • MI_EQUIP000_SAP_SYSTEM_C
     • MI_EQUIP000_MAINT_PLANT_C
     • MI_FNCLOC00_MAINT_PLNT_C
     • MI_FNCLOC00_SAP_SYSTEM_C

   For example, if you wanted to use your SAP maintenance plant field as your APM site reference, you would enter #MI_EQUIP000_MAINT_PLANT_C#.

3. Null: You can leave the value as null. The record will be a global record if a Site Reference value is not mapped in between the tags.

   If the assets being loaded into APM are global records, meaning they will not be filtered according to site, then the Site Reference parameters can be left blank. When records are loaded with a null values in their Site Reference parameters, those created asset records will be designated as Global.

After the adapters are run, records designated to be transferred into APM will be assigned to the site defined in the Site Reference parameters.

In addition to Equipment and Functional Location records loaded by the EAM adapters, Work History records and shell records are impacted by site reference functionality as detailed in the following table.